Record beater: This animation shows an artist's impression of the remarkable planetary system around the Sun-like star HD 10180

'The data indicates that there are not only seven but likely as many as nine planets in the system,' said Tuomi told SPACE.com. 'The two new planets appear to have orbital periods of roughly 10 and 68 days and masses of 1.9 and 5.1 times that of Earth, which enables the classification of them as hot super-Earths, i.e., planets with likely scorchingly hot rocky surfaces.'

Our solar system has eight planets after Pluto was officially demoted to dwarf planet status.

The staar has been studied for
years because at 130 light years away it is relatively close and
therefore brighter and easier for astronomers to examine.

Recent
studies detected that the star, which is in the constellation of the
water snake Hydrus, hosted six planets and observed a possible seventh
planet.

However, the latest research confirmed the existence of the seventh planet and found a further two planets orbiting the star.

Extraordinary: New findings show that the sun-like star could have nine planets orbiting around it

The planets vary drastically in
size and include one which is 65 times the Earth’s mass and one
estimated to be only 1.4 times heavier than Earth - making it one of the
smallest planets discovered outside our own solar system.

The
two newly discovered planets weigh in at 1.9 times and 5.1 times
heavier than Earth, 'enabling the classification of them as
super-Earths,' says the study.

The new planets follow hot orbits, circling their star in under 10 days for the small one, and 68 days for the larger.

Artist's impression: The oft-examined star is 130 light years away and in the constellation of Hydrus, the water snake

Competition: If the findings are proved HD10180's solar system will have more planets than ours since Pluto has been demoted to a dwarf planet

One of the new planets to be discovered and the seventh planet which was confirmed are particularly close to the sun-like star.

The
one with a mass of 1.3 times more than Earth is only 3 million km away
from HD 10180, closer than mercury is to the sun, making its surface hot
enough to melt zinc, tin and possibly even iron.

The
study explained that the star was a ‘very quiet one’ making it unlikely
that the activity of the two new planets that they detected was caused
by stellar phenomena.

‘Also,
the periodicities we report, namely 9.66 and 67.6 days, do not coincide
with any periodicities arising from the movement of the bodies in the
Solar system. Therefore, we consider the interpretation of these two new
signals of being of planetary origin to be the most credible
explanation,' the study continued.

Other solar systems generally have four or less planets orbiting a star.